"Hi! She's Aviendha!"

"Uh, hi. He's Rand."

"Okay, we introduced each other. Are we done? Can we go play?"

"I don't think so. Polgara and Taiba said we have to introduce ourselves and write a story."

"What do they know? They're just girls!"

"I'M a GIRL! And you better not let Aunt Shira hear you talking bad about girls. She's a girl and SHE'S the Queen of Everything. She'll whack you if you don't be nice."

"Okay, okay. Don't tell her. Or I might have to whack YOU."

"That's not very nice. lisa-mom thinks you're cute and nice. Maybe I should tell her you're not nice at all."

"She won't believe you. She says I'm her handsome little Rand-Man. She says I'm cute and sweet and a good kitten."

"Well, she call me Cutie Pie. She must think I'm cuter than you. And she says I'm a VERY good girl."

"I give up. I think she loves us both. So... what should we write about -- if we have to write a story? Should we talk about chasing up and down the stairs?"

"That would be kinda boring for people to read, wouldn't it? I mean, it's a lot of fun and all, but how much can you say about running up the stairs, them running back down? It's only fun when you do it."

"Yeah, that's true. So what do you think we should write about, Smartie Pants? "

"Taiba said we could talk about what we do every day."

"Like how we go upstairs every morning and say hi to Ken-dad and lisa-mom? Then we chase around in the bedroom and hall until they go downstairs. Then we race everyone to the cat room to eat our breakfast -- except when lisa-mom is too busy and she just makes us eat dry food for breakfast. Then we play with Polgara, and Taiba, and Basia for awhile."

"Uh huh. And then we take naps. My favorite place is in the little cat tree or with Talia-mom. That is, when she's not following Uncle Peanut around trying to talk him into being her boyfriend."

"My favorite place is on top the big cat tree. I love it up there! How come you don't go up there with me?"

"I do sometimes. You make it sound like I can't climb high. I can if I want to. I just like caves best."

"Caves are BOOOORING. Tall trees are best!"

"Caves are great! You can hide in them and jump out and scare everyone."

"Well, I can jump down from the tree onto everyone."

"Not if they see you up there first."

"I jump before they see me."

"I always see you."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't!"

"Uh oh! I think I here lisa-mom's car! Let's hurry up and get out of here before she catches us. You know the office is a cat-free zone."

"Okay, this will just have to be enough. If Taiba doesn't like it, she can write a story for us. Let's go pretend to be asleep on the rocking chair. lisa-mom will never know..."